Meet Tamar Blue, Founder and CEO of MentalHappy, the Revolutionary Mental Health Support Group Platform. We discuss the ins and outs of mental health in regard to severe emotional, and physical trauma, opportunities for mind body enhancement, the importance and empowerment of positive social engagement, the security and privacy that makes this growing mental health … Continue reading Meet Tamar Blue, Founder of MentalHappy, the Revolutionary Mental Health Support Group Platform
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(00:00):
Welcome back, everyone. This is Maximum Health Radio,
quality living with yours truly, doctor Ken Gray.
Thank you for joining us. And,
we have with us today,
not in the studio, but,
all the way from California,
Tamara Blue,
founder of Mental Happy. Thank you for joining
us, and and thank you for joining us
on Pacific time, which is three hours earlier.
(00:20):
I appreciate that. Thank you so much for
having me on, doctor Kim. Yes. So you're
a founder,
the founder of Mental Happy, and it's a
game changing solution
for, really for mental health,
but it also is a game changing solution
for support groups,
within the area of mental health. So I'd
I'd like to talk to you about a
(00:42):
little bit about your background and then, of
course, how you came to create this wonderful
service.
Yes. Absolutely.
Mental happy is a platform that, universally makes
it easier for people to find
emotional
support groups in their time of need,
whether they are a caregiver,
you know, navigating a life's transition
(01:03):
or chronic illness or really just looking for
affinity in community for what whatever they're experiencing.
And on the opposite side of that, mental
happy makes it easier
for providers and group facilitators,
which tend to be either licensed therapists or
practitioners.
It makes it easier for them to organize
(01:24):
and manage and run those groups and even
charge for their
services.
And and when you look at you said
the different people that run these support groups,
what do they encompass again? You said licensed
practitioners. So would it be clinical psychologists? Would
it be hypnotherapists?
What would it be? Or all of the
above? Yeah. We've seen a yeah. We've seen
(01:44):
a a pretty healthy range of,
really great people that lead
groups. Anyone from a licensed therapist, we've seen
mental health professionals,
we've seen advocates and even survivors,
people who have been through something similar and
have just a lot of deep knowledge base
on what they went through
(02:05):
and want to help other individuals.
And we've even seen, like, life coaches
and people who, do that type of work
as well. Mhmm.
And
what's your background?
I graduated from Florida State University,
and
my background has just really always been in
the study of groups and organizations.
(02:26):
So I went to school for sociology.
I also dual majored in economics.
My very
support group, if you could call it, was
early in high school when we had a,
peer network that allowed us to pair underclassmen
with upperclassmen
who may be feeling, like, isolated or bullied,
(02:48):
alone, didn't have anyone to sit with at
lunch perhaps.
Yeah. So I've been in this space,
a very long time, pretty passionate about
community based care,
mainly because of how
it really does transform
health outcomes and the likelihood
(03:08):
of someone
really surviving the thing that they're going through
or even transitioning through navigating the thing that
they're going through with a lot more ease
in finding that
really high level of efficacy of information
based on what they're going through, finding community
based on what they're going through, and just
really feeling less alone. I mean, as we
(03:29):
know,
loneliness is literally killing people
these days, worse than smoking 15 cigarettes a
day according to,
the attorney general. So,
it this has just really been
a passion and a life's work for me.
Yeah. I think, you know, what you're saying
was really brought to the forefront for the
time in
(03:50):
decades or or longer
with COVID
and how the statistics and all the science
and everything converge to
create an awareness in the optics of how
we need each other. We need social
interaction for health and well-being, at least positive
social interaction for health and well-being,
I would add.
(04:12):
You know,
based on your experience,
it brought me back mentally to my high
school
and involvement in leadership.
And,
leadership was sort of run by the head
of physics honors and which I was also
a part of. And,
what I liked about leadership was that communal
sort of forum based
(04:33):
discussion.
And,
what still,
was very,
it really touched me from being a part
of it was how many
of my fellow high school,
girls had gone through
family based,
sexual abuse.
(04:54):
And in that setting,
for the time, they felt comfortable speaking about
it, especially when they were next to three
other individuals, for instance, that also were speaking
about it. So,
I'm not sure that it it it had
or would have happened
at that time in their lives when things
(05:14):
could have been done about it earlier versus
later
had they not had that forum,
area and safety and common, you know, ground
with other people to share that,
with that trauma.
Yeah. Absolutely. And that's it's quite a common
scenario you shared. Sometimes
even what's really great about support groups is
(05:37):
the high level of privacy
and the community that you get. Right? So
everyone in that particular group
is going through the same thing that you're
going through. And
I'm often asked,
like, well, if people have, you know, best
friends and, you know, parents and and just
a really good network of people that
(05:57):
may be in their lives, why would they
trust a stranger
to, you know, share their feelings and say
what they're going through? Well,
oftentimes,
people really don't have
a strong community
of support.
And as a scenario that you just mentioned,
you know, with SA
(06:18):
and any type of domestic relation related issue
is that sometimes people are violated even in
their own homes.
So support groups are a way for
people to not feel like strangers with one
another,
to feel very safe on the mental happy
platform.
When you select a support group that you
(06:39):
wanna join, it's completely private.
You can see exactly what the group is
about,
what you're going to gain from it, what
the expectations are, if there are any trigger
warnings,
and you're able to participate with just a
username and whatever profile that you want as
long as it doesn't violate
(06:59):
the community rules. You can ask anonymous questions.
And as you mentioned in your example about
the young girl is that people are more
likely
to say and raise their hand,
yes. This also happened to me when they
know that they're on equal footing with other
people who have experienced the same. Mhmm.
(07:19):
And in doing so, find strength in themselves.
Absolutely.
Yeah. There's something about knowing that you're not
alone that also adds to your strength.
Walk us through
the process
because I think
if I were,
you know,
wanting to be involved with this, obviously, the
(07:41):
key
things that would,
what I would question is that an anonymity
or privacy.
How is that accomplished? How is that achieved?
How is that ensured?
Absolutely. So when we
set out to start mental happy, we initially
began
with
(08:01):
a a really large subset of support groups
on a social media site.
So from that experience
on being on another platform that really isn't
built for,
you know, health, wellness, or anything like that,
privacy became the number one thing. Because on
the social media sites, we were battling
(08:21):
fake people,
bots as they're called, and we were battling
advertisements.
We were battling, like, negative comments
within the group. So when we designed the
mental happy, we designed it with the level
of, yes, there should be a high level
of anonymity on the platform and privacy,
(08:42):
but we don't want it to be
so creepy that we have no idea
who are the people joining the platform.
So, we do like to remain HIPAA compliant
in that you do sign up with your
real name and your real last name and
your real email so that we can verify
that you're a human and you're not really
here to do any harm to anyone.
(09:04):
And then once you sign up for the
group
once you sign up for the platform,
you can select topics that resonate with you.
Our system can match you with particular groups
that might be of interest to you based
on what you filled out. Kind of think
of it as, like, a small
intake as if, like, when you go to
the doctor's office. Right? They give you a
(09:25):
form to ask you what your past experiences
are. That remains completely confidential as well. We
don't sell or share
any of that information that you share with
us.
And then
once you go through that wellness process, you
can see a variety and search all of
the groups on the platform
and join.
(09:45):
Now I did mention that there is a
level of anonymity on the platform. So within
the support group itself,
even though you are masked
with a username and a profile picture that
doesn't have to it doesn't have to look
like you at all. It could be a
watermelon.
You can also ask an anonymous question so
(10:06):
that even your members in the group won't
know, you know, what username asked the question.
Only your group facilitator will know and can
post the question on your behalf, and people
can interact and and comment and share. But
at least that gives you some extra level
of privacy. You know, maybe you're just feeling
shy and you don't wanna ask your people
to know that you're the one asking the
(10:27):
question.
But surprisingly, even though we have that feature,
it's used very little.
The the main thing that we focus on
is really transparency and people being able to
share freely and safely.
So those are some of the things that
people can expect when they when they join
the platform.
(10:47):
Our technology does the work of ensuring that
there aren't any fake people on the sites.
There aren't any people causing harm or havoc.
And then if if that is sensed on
the site, it's flagged and removed quite immediately,
but we haven't really encountered any issues yet.
Is there any risk of being directly contacted?
(11:07):
No. That's a great question. So
the other thing that we wanted to avoid
just even in our experience testing out other
platforms when when this was becoming performed
is that we didn't want the legal liability
between group facilitators
and group participants
to have any conflict. So and then we
(11:29):
also didn't want any,
any side distractions between group participants.
So we actually opted to not have direct
messaging
on the platform. So no one can direct
message you,
and you can't direct message,
the group facilitator
mainly because of cross state licensing issues. Many
(11:50):
of the group facilitators, even if they are
a licensed
professional on the platform,
they're not your licensed doctor or professional.
They're just the group facilitator
that has clinical knowledge, if that makes sense.
So we just wanted to really keep all
the interaction within the group clinical set within
the group setting just as it would be
(12:12):
similar to, like, group therapy. Right? You wouldn't
or even people are familiar with, like, AA
groups. You kinda go in the group. You
have a conversation you share. You participate in
the meetings and kind of people go their
separate ways, after that. So
we wanna just really keep that
that interaction
and focus within the healing of the group.
(12:33):
Beautiful.
So there's a myriad of reasons why
one would,
you know, obviously,
search out,
this service and this,
wonderful
opportunity to share.
We spoke about one of them, which is
domestic,
you know, abuse and and,
(12:54):
and those sort of things, especially.
Is there's two questions immediately before we get
into some of those other,
maybe,
reasons.
Is, is there an age limit?
Right. That's a good question. So currently, we
accept people 18 or older
on the platform.
(13:15):
We are looking into,
really because of the demand that we've been
receiving, we are looking into exploring
how this could be effective
for,
teenagers. Got it. So as of now,
if you sign on, you have to present
with a birth date, I'm guessing? Or Yes.
Okay.
(13:36):
And then the part was
what happens when the word
appears
suicide
or
that's you know, which is obviously one of
the extreme
reasons someone might search out a forum or
or a group like this.
Yeah. Absolutely. So,
(13:56):
initially, in the intake, we call it, like,
just the wellness check process when someone is
signing up. We do ask questions if the
individual
has been experiencing
any thoughts of self harm or has attempted
self harm,
then we have other partners, other organizations
that we work with that we can really
(14:17):
get that person more immediate
help because,
any type of,
fixations on harm
or attempts is considered a crisis level
and not not something that we would be
able
to,
immediately,
interact with or or help in the support
(14:38):
group setting. That person definitely needs just urgent
help. So we consider it as, like,
you know, there's you go to the doctor
or you go to the hospital, and this
would be a you go to the hospital
type situation.
So you direct them in some way, shape,
or form
to a different resource.
And do you also report or, you know,
(15:01):
assist? Anything like that or just, you know,
is it more of a
We we guide them to,
the services. Obviously, we can't forcibly make someone
do Right. Something that they don't want to
do, but,
we'll guide them to the services. And then,
within,
you know, a certain period, they after a
certain period, they're they're welcome to to come
(15:22):
back after they've received, services and help. Okay.
So then on to
more, I would say, common,
a little bit lighter
things, you know, grief, depression,
overall fatigue,
you know, just a general sense of,
(15:43):
you know, lack of enthusiasm
and due to the world, you know, all
these things that probably,
at any given time, all of us share
and would
love to do more than just sit and
stew about it, but would like to vent
and feel better through positive interaction.
Let's look at that
aspect of what you're offering through Mental Happy,
(16:06):
which is in the title of the name
of your company.
So let's get to that happy end, happy
part of it.
Yeah. It's it's a it's a balance that
people are always trying to work towards that
middle. Right? Mhmm. And, yes, we
I named it mental happy because,
I want I wanted to destigmatize
(16:27):
the word mental.
And, you know, it
you know, your mentality
can be in a state of well-being. It
can be in this state of happiness. It
doesn't mean it's there all the time. And
you are correct in that
with the
platform, our number one goal was to really
(16:48):
fill in the gap between
something being, you know, critical
and psychosis level, and you'd go see a
therapist
and
zero option
after that. Right? Like, what happens if you
live in a rural area
and you necessarily can't get to the closest
therapist, like, a 150 miles away?
(17:09):
Or what happens if you, you know, your
insurance doesn't cover
any type of talk therapy. Or
let's say,
perhaps you,
maybe you're just a little nervous about one
on one therapy. Maybe it's too expensive
out of pocket. You know? A lot of
people don't have a 175
to $250
(17:30):
for fifty minutes.
And you need a lot of those minutes
to work through, you know, issues. Right?
So and then the other thing that we
see a lot with the platform is that
with the gap that we're filling with mental
happy is that a lot of people
do need therapy.
But as you mentioned, a lot of people
just really need all the other stuff, which
(17:51):
is the education,
not feeling lonely,
having having a little bit of language for
what they're experiencing,
and encouragement.
And with that, you can do pretty effectively
in a support group setting according to just
really the twenty plus years of research on
support groups. And support groups are perfect for
(18:14):
maybe you're going through a divorce and you're
navigating that life transition. Maybe you're becoming a
parent.
Maybe
you are
feeling isolated and you're really looking for a
small LGBTQ, you know,
IA community.
And,
just like really all of the life things.
Maybe you were adopted as a kid and,
(18:34):
you know, you love your parents. They're wonderful,
but you're still having some feelings of feeling
isolated and you don't really know anybody else
who's adopted, right, with the same experience as
you. I've seen that type of support group
on the platform
as well. So
for as much as the
we probably see a lot less of things
that are just plain depression and anxiety
(18:56):
and just a lot more wide range of
the different
life events
that people
experience and even things that they wanna learn.
Like, one of the most interesting,
supporters I saw on the platform was, helping
people heal emotionally
through meditation.
I didn't think that could be done through
(19:16):
a support group, but I'm always amazed
at how these practitioners and group facilitators
are leveraging
other tactical skills, other tangible skills to help
people work through their emotional health. So,
you are very correct in that.
I wouldn't say that they're necessarily the lighter
(19:36):
life things, but I think what you're trying
to say is they're they're just they're not
psychosis
clinical level
things that you would, you know, go see
a mental health professional
or a licensed therapist
for. Certainly, that that is our sweet spot.
Yes. Thank you for clarifying. And, yep, and
I I love that it all went to
the area of meditation,
(19:57):
group meditation,
mindfulness,
you know, because then you have not just
a discussion forum of
unloading
and
sharing
and, you know,
sort of that that look of people just
trying to make it through. But now you
have a solution based,
area that you can transition to maybe,
(20:20):
based upon the forum
which deals with all of these positive,
you know, super conscious
methods of growth and
enhancing life. So, you know, I was told
many years ago
that
our natural state,
if you look at nature, is supposed to
be joy.
Yeah. I have been thinking about that quite
(20:41):
a lot lately. Yes.
So true. That's supposed to be our natural
state. So people who believe in the fact
that, oh, life is suffering and everything is
supposed to be you know, look around in
nature, look at harmony, look at things. Yes,
there's there's the ebbs and flows,
but generally,
there's there's a beautiful sense of, you know,
(21:01):
like, that classical song, Ode to Joy, just
a beautiful sense of being when you Absolutely.
Are present and you can
rise to that level of vibration
where all of the universe is,
you know, in harmony. So,
you know, at some point we go through
these traumatic experiences,
we do have our moments where we feel
(21:23):
like we're suffering, but we learn the tools,
and we
surround ourselves with positive social interaction and positive
methods and books and prayer and whatever else
we need in nature and nature bathing. So
so
how do you find and navigate that with
Mental Happy? Do you search
in there for,
(21:44):
say,
you know, certain keywords to find that type
of form, and and are they more prevalent
and growing within the mental happy universe?
Yeah. Thank you for sharing that.
The I've been deeply
focusing and thinking about this myself because
sometimes you can feel when things are a
(22:04):
little turbulent in life, when things are a
little you know, you're in the ebb and
not the flow,
it can feel like you'll be in the
ebb forever. But
I, you know, I try to tell people
this all the time. It's just
that rain is very temporary. Storms are temporary.
Like, if you look at nature and even
the traumatic things that happen in nature, like,
(22:24):
fires that just seem to combust out of
nowhere,
hurricanes. All these things are temporary and you
can kind of equate that to
the the rise and fall in your own
natural life.
But if you think about there's always fruit
on trees,
the sun is the perfect distance away from
the earth so that life can sustain here,
(22:46):
and just things that we just don't didn't
have to, like, work for, like water. Right?
Water is here. The natural
state of the universe,
and all of those things is really
joy and well-being and providing. So that's a
really great analogy for life, and I really
do love the fact that
(23:07):
I am seeing,
a varying
type of groups
on the platform
whether it is meditation.
I've even seen, like,
like yoga teachings and beliefs. I
I'm not sure. I'm I'm not participating in
the group, so I'm not sure if they
actually do any type of physical yoga,
(23:28):
on the video sessions, but I do know
they talk a lot about the practices and
the principles.
I've seen I've seen even teachings on, like,
Chinese medicine.
So kind of bringing the body back to,
its natural state, you know. I mean, small
things like Yeah. Balance. You know, drink beverages
that are warm, at room temperature, not cold.
(23:50):
And so and I've see and I've seen
that taught in
a support group setting.
So it it's interesting because
people tend to join the support groups because
they
are
experience let's say something universally that people go
through. They they're experiencing some type of heartbreak.
Right? Whether it's in a marriage form or
(24:12):
in some type of relationship in their lives,
and maybe
they join a group. One of the popular
ones is on, like, confidence on the platform,
and people learn so much more about themselves
outside
of that one thing,
that they experience. Sure. You learn that, you
know, heartbreak doesn't last forever. You grow your
(24:33):
confidence a little bit. You make some new
friends. You get daily encouragement.
So I think,
even if people
don't necessarily see, like, oh, how can meditation
help me? How can, you know,
these Eastern medicine or anything like that, like,
help me? I think people should just, like,
be a little bit open minded to different
(24:54):
things and practices.
I mean, think of it this way. You've
tried a lot of things
on your own, in your own life that
probably haven't worked out. Right? So,
it is really great to see not just
the group facilitators opening up different things on
the platform, but group
participants really trying something
something new that they've never heard of before.
(25:16):
So that really is,
growing quite a bit. I think we're growing
past just thinking of mental wellness as just
depression and anxiety. Right.
And I love it, and I love how,
you know, what we've touched on is mental
happy can also be body happy, and body
happy can also be mental happy. Right? So
Absolutely. That mind body connection
has become more prevalent and is becoming more
(25:38):
prevalent in day to day for people and
and how we view wellness and health and
quality living.
So thank you for joining us. How do
people,
listening,
reach Mental Happy, benefit from Mental Happy join
the Mental Happy
forums?
Yeah. Absolutely. So you can visit us at
(25:58):
mentalhappy.com.
All one word altogether. You can Google it
and you'll find us.
If you are looking to find a group,
it's a perfect opportunity
to just kinda search and see what's there.
And then if you are interested in starting
a support group, we'd love to have you
and your expertise on the platform.
One of the things that we do focus
(26:20):
on as an organization
is really giving people the tools
even if it's at a zero cost,
for them. So there is a really great
mental health resources
section at the bottom of our website.
Really great three to five minute tools even
if you're not in a support group. Just
things that you can do in your daily
(26:41):
life with your friends, with yourself, with your
children,
to just really improve your emotional thinking and
your state of being. So,
that's really what we're passionate about is just
really giving people some type of resource even
if it's not the support groups for you
right now. But we'd love to see you
on the platform at mentalhappy.com.
Yes.
(27:02):
And, thank you all for listening. Thank you
for,
Tamara Blue for creating this wonderful service and
for enhancing,
you know, life for those
out there that need it in this way.
Maximum Health Radio has been brought to you
in part by
Bell Health, wellness within reach. Download your Bell
Health app today if you have not.
(27:23):
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Download it today.
And if you've missed any portion of this
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Thank you for joining us. See you next
time.
Welcome back, everyone. This is Maximum Health Radio,
quality living with yours truly, doctor Ken Gray.
Thank you for joining us. And,
we have with us today,
not in the studio, but,
all the way from California,
Tamara Blue,
founder of Mental Happy. Thank you for joining
us, and and thank you for joining us
on Pacific time, which is three hours earlier.
(00:20):
I appreciate that. Thank you so much for
having me on, doctor Kim. Yes. So you're
a founder,
the founder of Mental Happy, and it's a
game changing solution
for, really for mental health,
but it also is a game changing solution
for support groups,
within the area of mental health. So I'd
I'd like to talk to you about a
(00:42):
little bit about your background and then, of
course, how you came to create this wonderful
service.
Yes. Absolutely.
Mental happy is a platform that, universally makes
it easier for people to find
emotional
support groups in their time of need,
whether they are a caregiver,
you know, navigating a life's transition
(01:03):
or chronic illness or really just looking for
affinity in community for what whatever they're experiencing.
And on the opposite side of that, mental
happy makes it easier
for providers and group facilitators,
which tend to be either licensed therapists or
practitioners.
It makes it easier for them to organize
(01:24):
and manage and run those groups and even
charge for their
services.
And and when you look at you said
the different people that run these support groups,
what do they encompass again? You said licensed
practitioners. So would it be clinical psychologists? Would
it be hypnotherapists?
What would it be? Or all of the
above? Yeah. We've seen a yeah. We've seen
(01:44):
a a pretty healthy range of,
really great people that lead
groups. Anyone from a licensed therapist, we've seen
mental health professionals,
we've seen advocates and even survivors,
people who have been through something similar and
have just a lot of deep knowledge base
on what they went through
(02:05):
and want to help other individuals.
And we've even seen, like, life coaches
and people who, do that type of work
as well. Mhmm.
And
what's your background?
I graduated from Florida State University,
and
my background has just really always been in
the study of groups and organizations.
(02:26):
So I went to school for sociology.
I also dual majored in economics.
My very
support group, if you could call it, was
early in high school when we had a,
peer network that allowed us to pair underclassmen
with upperclassmen
who may be feeling, like, isolated or bullied,
(02:48):
alone, didn't have anyone to sit with at
lunch perhaps.
Yeah. So I've been in this space,
a very long time, pretty passionate about
community based care,
mainly because of how
it really does transform
health outcomes and the likelihood
(03:08):
of someone
really surviving the thing that they're going through
or even transitioning through navigating the thing that
they're going through with a lot more ease
in finding that
really high level of efficacy of information
based on what they're going through, finding community
based on what they're going through, and just
really feeling less alone. I mean, as we
(03:29):
know,
loneliness is literally killing people
these days, worse than smoking 15 cigarettes a
day according to,
the attorney general. So,
it this has just really been
a passion and a life's work for me.
Yeah. I think, you know, what you're saying
was really brought to the forefront for the
time in
(03:50):
decades or or longer
with COVID
and how the statistics and all the science
and everything converge to
create an awareness in the optics of how
we need each other. We need social
interaction for health and well-being, at least positive
social interaction for health and well-being,
I would add.
(04:12):
You know,
based on your experience,
it brought me back mentally to my high
school
and involvement in leadership.
And,
leadership was sort of run by the head
of physics honors and which I was also
a part of. And,
what I liked about leadership was that communal
sort of forum based
(04:33):
discussion.
And,
what still,
was very,
it really touched me from being a part
of it was how many
of my fellow high school,
girls had gone through
family based,
sexual abuse.
(04:54):
And in that setting,
for the time, they felt comfortable speaking about
it, especially when they were next to three
other individuals, for instance, that also were speaking
about it. So,
I'm not sure that it it it had
or would have happened
at that time in their lives when things
(05:14):
could have been done about it earlier versus
later
had they not had that forum,
area and safety and common, you know, ground
with other people to share that,
with that trauma.
Yeah. Absolutely. And that's it's quite a common
scenario you shared. Sometimes
even what's really great about support groups is
(05:37):
the high level of privacy
and the community that you get. Right? So
everyone in that particular group
is going through the same thing that you're
going through. And
I'm often asked,
like, well, if people have, you know, best
friends and, you know, parents and and just
a really good network of people that
(05:57):
may be in their lives, why would they
trust a stranger
to, you know, share their feelings and say
what they're going through? Well,
oftentimes,
people really don't have
a strong community
of support.
And as a scenario that you just mentioned,
you know, with SA
(06:18):
and any type of domestic relation related issue
is that sometimes people are violated even in
their own homes.
So support groups are a way for
people to not feel like strangers with one
another,
to feel very safe on the mental happy
platform.
When you select a support group that you
(06:39):
wanna join, it's completely private.
You can see exactly what the group is
about,
what you're going to gain from it, what
the expectations are, if there are any trigger
warnings,
and you're able to participate with just a
username and whatever profile that you want as
long as it doesn't violate
(06:59):
the community rules. You can ask anonymous questions.
And as you mentioned in your example about
the young girl is that people are more
likely
to say and raise their hand,
yes. This also happened to me when they
know that they're on equal footing with other
people who have experienced the same. Mhmm.
(07:19):
And in doing so, find strength in themselves.
Absolutely.
Yeah. There's something about knowing that you're not
alone that also adds to your strength.
Walk us through
the process
because I think
if I were,
you know,
wanting to be involved with this, obviously, the
(07:41):
key
things that would,
what I would question is that an anonymity
or privacy.
How is that accomplished? How is that achieved?
How is that ensured?
Absolutely. So when we
set out to start mental happy, we initially
began
with
(08:01):
a a really large subset of support groups
on a social media site.
So from that experience
on being on another platform that really isn't
built for,
you know, health, wellness, or anything like that,
privacy became the number one thing. Because on
the social media sites, we were battling
(08:21):
fake people,
bots as they're called, and we were battling
advertisements.
We were battling, like, negative comments
within the group. So when we designed the
mental happy, we designed it with the level
of, yes, there should be a high level
of anonymity on the platform and privacy,
(08:42):
but we don't want it to be
so creepy that we have no idea
who are the people joining the platform.
So, we do like to remain HIPAA compliant
in that you do sign up with your
real name and your real last name and
your real email so that we can verify
that you're a human and you're not really
here to do any harm to anyone.
(09:04):
And then once you sign up for the
group
once you sign up for the platform,
you can select topics that resonate with you.
Our system can match you with particular groups
that might be of interest to you based
on what you filled out. Kind of think
of it as, like, a small
intake as if, like, when you go to
the doctor's office. Right? They give you a
(09:25):
form to ask you what your past experiences
are. That remains completely confidential as well. We
don't sell or share
any of that information that you share with
us.
And then
once you go through that wellness process, you
can see a variety and search all of
the groups on the platform
and join.
(09:45):
Now I did mention that there is a
level of anonymity on the platform. So within
the support group itself,
even though you are masked
with a username and a profile picture that
doesn't have to it doesn't have to look
like you at all. It could be a
watermelon.
You can also ask an anonymous question so
(10:06):
that even your members in the group won't
know, you know, what username asked the question.
Only your group facilitator will know and can
post the question on your behalf, and people
can interact and and comment and share. But
at least that gives you some extra level
of privacy. You know, maybe you're just feeling
shy and you don't wanna ask your people
to know that you're the one asking the
(10:27):
question.
But surprisingly, even though we have that feature,
it's used very little.
The the main thing that we focus on
is really transparency and people being able to
share freely and safely.
So those are some of the things that
people can expect when they when they join
the platform.
(10:47):
Our technology does the work of ensuring that
there aren't any fake people on the sites.
There aren't any people causing harm or havoc.
And then if if that is sensed on
the site, it's flagged and removed quite immediately,
but we haven't really encountered any issues yet.
Is there any risk of being directly contacted?
(11:07):
No. That's a great question. So
the other thing that we wanted to avoid
just even in our experience testing out other
platforms when when this was becoming performed
is that we didn't want the legal liability
between group facilitators
and group participants
to have any conflict. So and then we
(11:29):
also didn't want any,
any side distractions between group participants.
So we actually opted to not have direct
messaging
on the platform. So no one can direct
message you,
and you can't direct message,
the group facilitator
mainly because of cross state licensing issues. Many
(11:50):
of the group facilitators, even if they are
a licensed
professional on the platform,
they're not your licensed doctor or professional.
They're just the group facilitator
that has clinical knowledge, if that makes sense.
So we just wanted to really keep all
the interaction within the group clinical set within
the group setting just as it would be
(12:12):
similar to, like, group therapy. Right? You wouldn't
or even people are familiar with, like, AA
groups. You kinda go in the group. You
have a conversation you share. You participate in
the meetings and kind of people go their
separate ways, after that. So
we wanna just really keep that
that interaction
and focus within the healing of the group.
(12:33):
Beautiful.
So there's a myriad of reasons why
one would,
you know, obviously,
search out,
this service and this,
wonderful
opportunity to share.
We spoke about one of them, which is
domestic,
you know, abuse and and,
(12:54):
and those sort of things, especially.
Is there's two questions immediately before we get
into some of those other,
maybe,
reasons.
Is, is there an age limit?
Right. That's a good question. So currently, we
accept people 18 or older
on the platform.
(13:15):
We are looking into,
really because of the demand that we've been
receiving, we are looking into exploring
how this could be effective
for,
teenagers. Got it. So as of now,
if you sign on, you have to present
with a birth date, I'm guessing? Or Yes.
Okay.
(13:36):
And then the part was
what happens when the word
appears
suicide
or
that's you know, which is obviously one of
the extreme
reasons someone might search out a forum or
or a group like this.
Yeah. Absolutely. So,
(13:56):
initially, in the intake, we call it, like,
just the wellness check process when someone is
signing up. We do ask questions if the
individual
has been experiencing
any thoughts of self harm or has attempted
self harm,
then we have other partners, other organizations
that we work with that we can really
(14:17):
get that person more immediate
help because,
any type of,
fixations on harm
or attempts is considered a crisis level
and not not something that we would be
able
to,
immediately,
interact with or or help in the support
(14:38):
group setting. That person definitely needs just urgent
help. So we consider it as, like,
you know, there's you go to the doctor
or you go to the hospital, and this
would be a you go to the hospital
type situation.
So you direct them in some way, shape,
or form
to a different resource.
And do you also report or, you know,
(15:01):
assist? Anything like that or just, you know,
is it more of a
We we guide them to,
the services. Obviously, we can't forcibly make someone
do Right. Something that they don't want to
do, but,
we'll guide them to the services. And then,
within,
you know, a certain period, they after a
certain period, they're they're welcome to to come
(15:22):
back after they've received, services and help. Okay.
So then on to
more, I would say, common,
a little bit lighter
things, you know, grief, depression,
overall fatigue,
you know, just a general sense of,
(15:43):
you know, lack of enthusiasm
and due to the world, you know, all
these things that probably,
at any given time, all of us share
and would
love to do more than just sit and
stew about it, but would like to vent
and feel better through positive interaction.
Let's look at that
aspect of what you're offering through Mental Happy,
(16:06):
which is in the title of the name
of your company.
So let's get to that happy end, happy
part of it.
Yeah. It's it's a it's a balance that
people are always trying to work towards that
middle. Right? Mhmm. And, yes, we
I named it mental happy because,
I want I wanted to destigmatize
(16:27):
the word mental.
And, you know, it
you know, your mentality
can be in a state of well-being. It
can be in this state of happiness. It
doesn't mean it's there all the time. And
you are correct in that
with the
platform, our number one goal was to really
(16:48):
fill in the gap between
something being, you know, critical
and psychosis level, and you'd go see a
therapist
and
zero option
after that. Right? Like, what happens if you
live in a rural area
and you necessarily can't get to the closest
therapist, like, a 150 miles away?
(17:09):
Or what happens if you, you know, your
insurance doesn't cover
any type of talk therapy. Or
let's say,
perhaps you,
maybe you're just a little nervous about one
on one therapy. Maybe it's too expensive
out of pocket. You know? A lot of
people don't have a 175
to $250
(17:30):
for fifty minutes.
And you need a lot of those minutes
to work through, you know, issues. Right?
So and then the other thing that we
see a lot with the platform is that
with the gap that we're filling with mental
happy is that a lot of people
do need therapy.
But as you mentioned, a lot of people
just really need all the other stuff, which
(17:51):
is the education,
not feeling lonely,
having having a little bit of language for
what they're experiencing,
and encouragement.
And with that, you can do pretty effectively
in a support group setting according to just
really the twenty plus years of research on
support groups. And support groups are perfect for
(18:14):
maybe you're going through a divorce and you're
navigating that life transition. Maybe you're becoming a
parent.
Maybe
you are
feeling isolated and you're really looking for a
small LGBTQ, you know,
IA community.
And,
just like really all of the life things.
Maybe you were adopted as a kid and,
(18:34):
you know, you love your parents. They're wonderful,
but you're still having some feelings of feeling
isolated and you don't really know anybody else
who's adopted, right, with the same experience as
you. I've seen that type of support group
on the platform
as well. So
for as much as the
we probably see a lot less of things
that are just plain depression and anxiety
(18:56):
and just a lot more wide range of
the different
life events
that people
experience and even things that they wanna learn.
Like, one of the most interesting,
supporters I saw on the platform was, helping
people heal emotionally
through meditation.
I didn't think that could be done through
(19:16):
a support group, but I'm always amazed
at how these practitioners and group facilitators
are leveraging
other tactical skills, other tangible skills to help
people work through their emotional health. So,
you are very correct in that.
I wouldn't say that they're necessarily the lighter
(19:36):
life things, but I think what you're trying
to say is they're they're just they're not
psychosis
clinical level
things that you would, you know, go see
a mental health professional
or a licensed therapist
for. Certainly, that that is our sweet spot.
Yes. Thank you for clarifying. And, yep, and
I I love that it all went to
the area of meditation,
(19:57):
group meditation,
mindfulness,
you know, because then you have not just
a discussion forum of
unloading
and
sharing
and, you know,
sort of that that look of people just
trying to make it through. But now you
have a solution based,
area that you can transition to maybe,
(20:20):
based upon the forum
which deals with all of these positive,
you know, super conscious
methods of growth and
enhancing life. So, you know, I was told
many years ago
that
our natural state,
if you look at nature, is supposed to
be joy.
Yeah. I have been thinking about that quite
(20:41):
a lot lately. Yes.
So true. That's supposed to be our natural
state. So people who believe in the fact
that, oh, life is suffering and everything is
supposed to be you know, look around in
nature, look at harmony, look at things. Yes,
there's there's the ebbs and flows,
but generally,
there's there's a beautiful sense of, you know,
(21:01):
like, that classical song, Ode to Joy, just
a beautiful sense of being when you Absolutely.
Are present and you can
rise to that level of vibration
where all of the universe is,
you know, in harmony. So,
you know, at some point we go through
these traumatic experiences,
we do have our moments where we feel
(21:23):
like we're suffering, but we learn the tools,
and we
surround ourselves with positive social interaction and positive
methods and books and prayer and whatever else
we need in nature and nature bathing. So
so
how do you find and navigate that with
Mental Happy? Do you search
in there for,
(21:44):
say,
you know, certain keywords to find that type
of form, and and are they more prevalent
and growing within the mental happy universe?
Yeah. Thank you for sharing that.
The I've been deeply
focusing and thinking about this myself because
sometimes you can feel when things are a
(22:04):
little turbulent in life, when things are a
little you know, you're in the ebb and
not the flow,
it can feel like you'll be in the
ebb forever. But
I, you know, I try to tell people
this all the time. It's just
that rain is very temporary. Storms are temporary.
Like, if you look at nature and even
the traumatic things that happen in nature, like,
(22:24):
fires that just seem to combust out of
nowhere,
hurricanes. All these things are temporary and you
can kind of equate that to
the the rise and fall in your own
natural life.
But if you think about there's always fruit
on trees,
the sun is the perfect distance away from
the earth so that life can sustain here,
(22:46):
and just things that we just don't didn't
have to, like, work for, like water. Right?
Water is here. The natural
state of the universe,
and all of those things is really
joy and well-being and providing. So that's a
really great analogy for life, and I really
do love the fact that
(23:07):
I am seeing,
a varying
type of groups
on the platform
whether it is meditation.
I've even seen, like,
like yoga teachings and beliefs. I
I'm not sure. I'm I'm not participating in
the group, so I'm not sure if they
actually do any type of physical yoga,
(23:28):
on the video sessions, but I do know
they talk a lot about the practices and
the principles.
I've seen I've seen even teachings on, like,
Chinese medicine.
So kind of bringing the body back to,
its natural state, you know. I mean, small
things like Yeah. Balance. You know, drink beverages
that are warm, at room temperature, not cold.
(23:50):
And so and I've see and I've seen
that taught in
a support group setting.
So it it's interesting because
people tend to join the support groups because
they
are
experience let's say something universally that people go
through. They they're experiencing some type of heartbreak.
Right? Whether it's in a marriage form or
(24:12):
in some type of relationship in their lives,
and maybe
they join a group. One of the popular
ones is on, like, confidence on the platform,
and people learn so much more about themselves
outside
of that one thing,
that they experience. Sure. You learn that, you
know, heartbreak doesn't last forever. You grow your
(24:33):
confidence a little bit. You make some new
friends. You get daily encouragement.
So I think,
even if people
don't necessarily see, like, oh, how can meditation
help me? How can, you know,
these Eastern medicine or anything like that, like,
help me? I think people should just, like,
be a little bit open minded to different
(24:54):
things and practices.
I mean, think of it this way. You've
tried a lot of things
on your own, in your own life that
probably haven't worked out. Right? So,
it is really great to see not just
the group facilitators opening up different things on
the platform, but group
participants really trying something
something new that they've never heard of before.
(25:16):
So that really is,
growing quite a bit. I think we're growing
past just thinking of mental wellness as just
depression and anxiety. Right.
And I love it, and I love how,
you know, what we've touched on is mental
happy can also be body happy, and body
happy can also be mental happy. Right? So
Absolutely. That mind body connection
has become more prevalent and is becoming more
(25:38):
prevalent in day to day for people and
and how we view wellness and health and
quality living.
So thank you for joining us. How do
people,
listening,
reach Mental Happy, benefit from Mental Happy join
the Mental Happy
forums?
Yeah. Absolutely. So you can visit us at
(25:58):
mentalhappy.com.
All one word altogether. You can Google it
and you'll find us.
If you are looking to find a group,
it's a perfect opportunity
to just kinda search and see what's there.
And then if you are interested in starting
a support group, we'd love to have you
and your expertise on the platform.
One of the things that we do focus
(26:20):
on as an organization
is really giving people the tools
even if it's at a zero cost,
for them. So there is a really great
mental health resources
section at the bottom of our website.
Really great three to five minute tools even
if you're not in a support group. Just
things that you can do in your daily
(26:41):
life with your friends, with yourself, with your
children,
to just really improve your emotional thinking and
your state of being. So,
that's really what we're passionate about is just
really giving people some type of resource even
if it's not the support groups for you
right now. But we'd love to see you
on the platform at mentalhappy.com.
Yes.
(27:02):
And, thank you all for listening. Thank you
for,
Tamara Blue for creating this wonderful service and
for enhancing,
you know, life for those
out there that need it in this way.
Maximum Health Radio has been brought to you
in part by
Bell Health, wellness within reach. Download your Bell
Health app today if you have not.
(27:23):
It's a hub for your wearables, and it's
a wonderful resource, a free resource and app.
Download it today.
And if you've missed any portion of this
wonderful, inspiring,
and helpful show,
it's available via all podcasts.
Thank you for joining us. See you next
time.
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